Candy Crush Saga and Empires & Allies this week’s gainer and loser among May’s Top 25 Facebook games

Now that we’ve published our May Top 25 Facebook list and given it a week to breathe, it’s time to take a closer look at the traffic patterns of each game mentioned.

Counting down from No. 25 we’ll examine the behavior of six or seven of the games on the list each week, based on their daily active user history (the best way to gauge an app’s core audience), and predict how this traffic will affect a game’s position on next month’s list. For the first week of May, we’ll examine No. 25 through No. 19.

25. Marvel: Avengers Alliance

Disney Playdom’s Marvel: Avengers Alliance is reaping the benefits of the massive marketing campaign for the record-breaking film “The Avengers.” The movie came out last Friday, so the Avengers IP is still in the public eye, meaning Avengers Alliance is continuing to bring in new players. Since May 1, Avengers Alliance gained 300,000 DAU, bringing its total to 1.5 million. If traffic continues to increase like this, then the game may very well place somewhere around No. 15 next month. Whether or not Avengers Alliance can maintain this user acquisition remains to be seen, though, especially when the movie leaves theaters in a few weeks. “The Amazing Spider-Man” is due out in theaters on July 3, but it remains to be seen whether or not the inevitable cross-promotion with that film will be enough to keep users coming in at this pace.

T21. DoubleDown Casino

DoubleDown Interactive’s DoubleDown Casino is holding steady at 1.3 million DAU, the point the game has continuously returned to since December 2011. DoubleDown Casino managed to spike up a few times to 1.4 million DAU over the past ten days, though, so it could return to that point again soon. The game showed high growth during the second half of 2011, but this has slowed since DoubleDown Interactive was acquired by International Game Technology in January. Since DoubleDown Casino doesn’t seem to be gaining or losing significant traffic, it will probably appear on our June Top 25 list, but stay on the tail end of the chart.

T21. Hoop De Loop Saga

King.com’s Hoop De Loop Saga is up to 1.4 million DAU, a gain of 100,000 since it debuted on the Top 25 list. The game hasn’t been climbing the charts as quickly as other “Saga” games, but it has showed steady gains since it launched in January. Hoop De Loop Saga’s total traffic is up by nearly 500,000 DAU since April 1, so it seems likely that the game will continue to grow and move up a couple of places for June’s Top 25 list.

T21. Candy Crush Saga

King.com’s newest “Saga” game continues its traffic sugar rush. The game has already gained 500,000 DAU since the May Top 25 list was published, bringing its total up to 1.8 million. Since the game launched in April, it’s proven a hit on Facebook and has regularly topped our weekly lists of fastest-growing games. If Candy Crush Saga manages to keep accumulating users, then it may very well add another million or so DAU to its total, which would easily move it up to the top half of June’s Top 25 list.

T21. Top Eleven – Be a Football Manager

Nordeus’s Top Eleven – Be a Football Manager continues to hover at 1.3 million DAU. This is another title that’s showed slow, but regular, gains since it launched in May 2010. The past few months show Top Eleven will generally hold steady at a traffic point for about six weeks before it moves up by 100,000 DAU. It’s been almost four weeks since the last increase, so the game will probably show a noticeable gain towards the end of May. The game may not move on June’s Top 25 chart even if this happens, since it took 1.2 million DAU this month to just to get onto the list. If minimum DAU increases, the game might wind up even closer to No. 25.

20. 開心水族箱

Happy Elements’s Chinese language aquarium sim 開心水族箱 (“Aquarium Open Heart Box”) is still bobbing along at the 1.5 million DAU waterline. Even though it launched in 2009, this is a title with impressive staying power, even though its DAU figures aren’t anywhere near its peak of almost 2.4 million DAU. Since May 1, the game’s traffic bounced up and down, but it’s returned to 1.5 million. 開心水族箱’s traffic regularly moves in waves, and April marked a valley with 1.4 million DAU. The game’s numbers are starting to improve again and it may very well gain another 100,000 DAU by the end of the month, possibly moving it up another spot or two in June.

19. Empires & Allies

Zynga’s Empires & Allies continues to lose users at a steady pace, down by 200,000 DAU since May 1. Zynga designed this to appeal to mid-core strategy fans, but it hasn’t had the lasting appeal of its “Ville” titles. The game launched and peaked in June 2011, hitting a high point of 7.7 million DAU before starting to noticeably shrink that August. Empires & Allies is currently at 1.5 million DAU, meaning it’s dropped by 700,000 since February alone. If Empires & Allies continues to decline at this rate, it may not even be on the Top 25 for June.

All data in this post comes from our traffic tracking service, AppData. Stay tuned for next week’s continuation of our Top 25 gainers and losers, when we look at No. 18 through No. 12 on the list.